


Say You'll Never Let Me Go

by edenofalltrades



Series: I Don't Wanna Wake Up (If It Ain't Next To You) [1]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Implied History of Eating Disorder, Inspired by a Movie, New Year's Eve, Self-Harm, Snowed In, implied body image issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-20 16:41:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13150731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenofalltrades/pseuds/edenofalltrades
Summary: Having one night stands with random men was Veronica’s style, not Betty’s. So, of course, the one time she branches out, she gets snowed in and has to spend another day with someone she had a miserable time with. Can a blanket fort, an open conversation, and a second go-round change her perspective on Jughead Jones? Inspired by the movie Two Night Stand.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Riverdale or Two Night Stand and will not be making any profit from this story. Some dialogue is taken from the original film source. 
> 
> Story title from “Roses” by The Chainsmokers. It isn’t completely necessary to listen to that song to read the story, but I personally think it encapsulates the tone of the story and is worth a listen.
> 
> A HUGE thank you to my beta readers [paalme](http://archiveofourown.org/users/paalme/profile), taidine, and KD. Without you, this would still be a first draft I would have been too nervous to post.

Betty Cooper groaned as she woke up. Momentarily disoriented, she was only certain of two things - she was not in her own bed and the room was far too bright for her liking.

As she rolled over, the events from the previous night came flooding back to her. The man in bed with her laid on his side, facing away from her, blissfully unaware of the world around him.  
  
As quietly as she could manage, Betty moved around the room, gathering her clothes and getting dressed. After taking a few seconds to jot down a quick note to stick to the door - all those lessons in good manners sticking with her through the years - she opened the door to leave…

...or at least attempted to. Apparently the two deadbolts and three locks on the door weren’t enough for the guy and he had a security system as well. Betty wasn’t familiar with this particular region of Brooklyn, but just how dangerous was it? At the very least this eliminated the possibility of her quietly slinking away.  
  
Closing the door and taking care to crumple up and throw the note in a nearby trash can, Betty padded back into bed, not even bothering to take her coat off. As she fell back into bed, Betty couldn’t help but think about just how she got into this mess in the first place.  
                                                                                             
 **The Previous Day**  
  
Betty Cooper was officially in a funk. Although she had tried to deny it for several months, the signs were painfully obvious. Single and unemployed, she had been staying with her best friend, Veronica Lodge, in what was supposed to just be a temporary arrangement until she got back on her feet. But that had turned into a year of squatting without any foreseeable prospects - romantic or employment. Betty didn’t consider herself to be a bad roommate. While she couldn’t really contribute monetarily or to the conversations at weekly girls nights, she did help in other ways. She kept the apartment tidy and cooked dinner almost every night.  
  
Betty only meant for her sabbatical to last a week, two, tops, but then the third week turned into the fourth and she quickly sunk into a new routine. She would get up at 11 AM, putter around the apartment, cleaning or doing laundry, something that made her look productive without really getting much forward momentum.

At least she was finally putting herself out there, something Veronica was always on Betty’s case about. After a week of comparing sites to join, Betty finally made an account on a dating website. Once she psyched herself up into making the account, she spent the next few days meticulously filling out her profile, trying to make it as strong as she possibly could.

That’s what she was doing when Veronica came home from work that afternoon. Veronica was a successful businesswoman working for her family’s business, Lodge Industries. She had been spending the last week working on a big merger for the company. Betty’s big accomplishment for the day? Uploading the six pictures of herself to the dating website that she thought made herself look the most fun and approachable.

As Betty heard the telltale sign of the key in the lock, she placed her laptop on the coffee table, turned off the TV and picked up a copy of _Beloved_.

“In your usual place, I see,” Veronica commented as she took off her coat.

“Consistency has always been one of my best qualities,” Betty sighed as she tossed the book on the other side of the couch and walked over to the refrigerator. From behind her Betty could hear Veronica sigh, prompting her to ask, “Bad day?”

“No, I’m just exhausted,” Veronica explained.

“I know what you mean,” Betty nodded.

Veronica walked over to the island counter where Betty was sitting on one of the stools with a bottle of water. “Maybe it’s time you got a job.”

It’s not that Betty didn’t want a job, or even that she wasn’t looking for one. Almost every day she would make an attempt to update her resume, or look for jobs, but it would always end the same way - her getting a minor anxiety attack that ended with her sitting on the opposite end of the couch as her laptop, either reading or watching TV until Veronica came home and Betty would make dinner or they would go out.

“I look for a fulfilling job all the time,” Betty argued “I just happen not to be doing it when you’re home. It’s like trying to study while Mom is watching.”

“Did you look for any of these fulfilling jobs today?” Veronica asked pointedly. “Did you get anything done today? This week?”

“I will have you know that I did the laundry, and made those mocha chocolate chip cookies you like,” Betty countered “And I started online dating.”  
  
"You did?!" Veronica waggled her eyebrows before she turned and walked to her room. "Meet anyone good yet?"

Betty walked over to the couch so she could keep the conversation going despite them being in different rooms. “I just made my profile like two days ago. Still trying to ease into the whole thing."

"Well, I'm glad you started at least. It's been how long since you went on a date? Frankly, I've been starting to worry about you."  
  
"I'll be fine. So tell me, did the merger go through like you wanted?” Betty asked in an attempt to change the subject.  
  
“Even better. We got them to agree to all of our terms and even got them to pay for it,” she explained. “I’m going to get a nice bonus out of this.”  
  
“Vee, that’s great, I’m so happy for you!” Betty cheered. When Veronica emerged from her room, Betty noticed that she had changed to from the silk green blouse she was wearing to a tight burgundy dress. “Are we going out to celebrate?”  
  
“We’re going out, but not because of this. Archie’s friend, Reggie, is celebrating his birthday.” Veronica explained as she sat next to Betty on the couch and changed from her high heeled boots to a pair of strappy Manolo Blahniks. “You should come with us! From what I hear, he’s not the smartest, but he’s really cute and just what you could use right now to get back on the horse.”

Betty blanched at the thought, “Are you sure that’s the best idea? Do you really think I’m ready to get back on that horse?”  
  
“Yes,” Veronica nodded, not missing a beat. “Honestly, I would have found a rebound within a week or two, so the fact that you’ve been holding out for this long is some kind of scientific anomaly”.  
  
“Gee, thanks,” Betty deadpanned.  
  
“I’m just trying to do what’s best for you. Now go get dressed before I force you into something appropriate. Actually no, I don’t trust you to pick something with that pastel princess wardrobe of yours.” Veronica went back into her room and came out a few minutes later with a lacy black dress. “Here, go put this on and meet me in the living room in ten minutes.”  
  
Back in her room, Betty took a good look at the dress. It was beautiful no doubt - black, lacy, weather-inappropriate, and something that would be perfect on Veronica. Wanting to avoid confrontation, Betty put the dress on, taking a second to admire herself in the mirror. Much as she hated to admit it, Veronica was right, she did look good. Random hookups with guys she just met were not her usual thing, but neither were short, lacy, black dresses and if Veronica was right about how she looked in the dress, maybe a random hookup would be just what she needed to get over Chuck.

Betty paired the dress with thermal leggings, just enough to provide warmth but nothing to detract from the overall look, and her usual pink lipstick. By the time she was got dressed, Archie, Veronica’s boyfriend, had already arrived.  
  
“Is this good?” Betty asked, spinning around to give the pair a chance to appraise her outfit from all angles.  
  
“Magnifique!” Veronica cheered, “Archiekins, doesn’t Betty look like a total smoke show?”  
  
“You look great, Betty,” Archie agreed.  
  
“I’m going to set Betty up with Reggie,” Veronica informed Archie.  
  
“And you agree with this plan?” Archie asked skeptically.  
  
“Of course she does,” Veronica answered for Betty. “It’s a great plan, why wouldn’t she agree?”  
  
Archie looked over at Betty. This wasn’t an uncommon occurrence - Veronica, for all her great qualities, tended to think her opinion was the most important one.  
  
“I agree with it,” Betty assured him.  
  
“Okay, if you’re sure…” Archie sighed.  
  
“I’m sure,” Betty nodded.  
  
“Well, since we’ve established we’re all sure let’s go,” Veronica announced. “While the young is still as night as we are.”

* * *

The bar was close to the apartment so the group walked over. Things seemed to be going off to a good start until a bouncer standing in front of the bar asked to see their IDs. Archie and Veronica handed theirs over without a problem. Betty, on the other hand, completely forgot that she misplaced her ID the other day when she was switching purses and had yet to locate it in the apartment or request a replacement.

“Umm guys…” Betty notified her friends who were already halfway through the door. “There’s a small problem.”  
  
“What?! Again?!” Veronica pinched the bridge of her nose. “This is what, the second time this month?”  
  
"I know, I know!" Betty panicked, turning to the bouncer. "Look, sir, my friends can absolutely vouch for me. I'm 22! I..."

"Save it, blondie," the tall man put his hand up to cut her off. "If I can't see some ID,  I can't let you in. Thems the rules."

Betty was certain she was going to cry. As she started to dig through her purse in case maybe, just maybe, the fates were on her side and she brought her ID without realizing it, she heard someone say "Excuse me" from behind her.

"Oh, sorry," Betty said, moving aside to let the people behind her pass only to look up and see... "Chuck."

"Betty!" Well, at least he had the decency to act as surprised to see her as she was to see him. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"I could ask you the same." Betty abandoned rooting through her purse to cross her arms and scowl at Chuck.  
  
"Look, there's no need to be hostile given all we've been through" he admonished.

Her hand closed in a fist, taking care not to re-open the wounds she worked so hard to keep closed, she nodded. "I'm here for a birthday party for one of Archie's friends. You remember Archie and Veronica, right?"  
  
Archie and Veronica came over to Betty's side, saying their hellos to Chuck. That was when Betty noticed the woman standing next to him.

“I think that woman is trying to pass you, Chuck,” she commented.  
  
“Oh, no, we actually came here together,” Chuck explained. “She’s my girlfriend.”  
  
“Oh, I see,” Betty said, wide-eyed. “Well, I’ll just get out of your way so you can go ahead and get in.”  
  
“It was really nice seeing you again, Betty,” Chuck stated. “We should catch up.”  
  
“Mhmm,” Betty had to bite down on her lip to keep herself from telling him what she really thought of his idea.  
  
"I'm so sorry, I had no idea he was going to be here, you have to believe me!" Veronica promised as soon as Chuck and his date walked into the bar.

"No, no, I believe you." Betty crossed her arms around her stomach, "I just... seeing him again made me realize just how far I've fallen off course. Last year I was engaged, I was employed, I drank wine, in restaurants!" Betty directed the last one to the bouncer who was clearly listening in to her rant. "And look at me now! I'm squatting in your apartment, not even paying rent, no job or romantic prospect... Chuck moved on and I'm moving backwards!"  
  
"Betty, honey, calm down." Veronica put her arm around Betty in an effort to bring her down from her rant. "What you need right now is one good lay to get your mind off all of this. So go home, open the bottle of wine I brought home last week, find yourself a suitable guy on that site of yours and just go for it!"

"What do you mean by go for it?! I can't just order sex, it's not an edible arrangement!" Betty gasped.  
  
"Sure you can, you're a modern woman with curves to die for and an internet connection!" Veronica doubled down, turning to Archie. "Back me up, Archiekins."  
  
"Hmm, yeah, right, curves, internet, yeah..." Archie sputtered, face turning as red as his hair.

"Great, it's settled, find a good guy and give me a full report in the morning!" Veronica gave Betty one last supportive squeeze on the arm before going into the bar with Archie.  
  
"Is she for real? I can't just..." Betty shook her head.  
  
"Look, sweetie, you can take her advice or not, but unless you show me some ID, you're not getting into this bar," the bouncer reminded.  
  
"Right, yeah, fair enough." Betty nodded, turning on her heel and heading back in the direction of the apartment.

* * *

The first thing Betty did when she got back to the apartment was change out of Veronica's dress, taking care to hang it back up in her roommate's closet. If she was going to be doing something that made her so fundamentally uncomfortable, at the very least she was going to be doing it in clothing that made her comfortable. And besides, if she was going over for a one night stand, why did it matter if she was wearing a lacy dress or jeans and a soft grey sweater?

It would be coming off anyway, might as well go in wearing something easier to take off.  
  
The wine Veronica mentioned was clearly expensive and Betty felt bad about drinking it for what she was about to do. She could practically hear her mother admonishing her for chugging the wine like some common alcoholic and not savoring the bouquet. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and with that in mind, halfway through the glass, Betty opened her inbox and sent out messages to the guys who were listed as being online at the time.

Choosing the first guy at random, Betty took a deep breath and sent a message.

BestBetts: Hey there  
  
BrolicBro93:  "U R SO HAWT"

Betty closed her laptop and tossed it to the other side of the couch.  
  
Taking a deep cleansing breath, and another gulp of the wine, she reached over and took the laptop back over and decided to try again. Closing out of the window with the conversation with BrolicBro93 and opened a chat with the other two guys in her inbox who messaged her recently that were listed as being online. Maybe if she tried them both, her charmed third time would come as the result from one of those conversations.

It definitely wouldn’t be coming from the second guy who called her a “sexxxxy lady” and offered to show her a certain part of his anatomy. Great. Betty blocked him without a second thought. Was there something in the water? Was it really that hard to find a semi-decent guy out there?

When she heard the ding of a response from the third guy, Betty took another large swig of her wine, hoping beyond hope that this one would be normal.

BestBetts: Hey there

Betty crossed her fingers as she waited for his response. “Come on. The bar is set so low.”

BurgerAficionado1: Hey there, how’s it going?

Finally! A normal decent, human response! With proper capitalization no less!

BestBetts: Alright, how about yourself?

BurgerAficionado1: Same

Betty typed out "Would you like to have sex with me?" Then promptly realized just how terrible that looked and erased it. She regrouped with another sip of wine and went for a slightly more tactful approach.

BestBetts: I think my roommate is about to sexile me. Do you want to hang out?

BurgerAficionado1: I know a pretty decent bar called the Whyte Wyrm

BestBetts: Actually I was thinking your place

BurgerAficionado1: 172 Teller Ave Apartment 2 Brooklyn NY

BurgerAficionado1: Sorry that was too quick. Pretend I waited a second there.

Oh crap. He lived in Brooklyn! It would take forever to get there! But then again, did Betty really have any better prospects? Not even close.  
  
BestBetts: I'm coming all the way from the East Village. See you in a month.

BurgerAficionado1: Haha, I'll have cups of water at each train station

Betty was just about to close her laptop when she got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She knew nothing about this guy and she was about to go over to his house to have sex with him?! She didn’t even look at his profile before sending him a DM equivalent of a booty call! For all she knew he was some sort of serial killer, luring unsuspecting women via dating websites. Then Betty remembered reading about something called the Psycho Test - if she could just get him to show her his apartment before she went over, she would know for sure if he was safe.

BestBetts: Wait!

BestBetts: Can we video chat first?

BurgerAficionado1: Sure

BestBetts: I want to see your apartment

BestBetts: The Psycho Test - newspaper clippings about unsolved murders on your wall = no dice

BurgerAficionado1: Completely understandable. Just let me put away this bloody knife first

*Incoming video call from BurgerAficionado1*  
  
“Here goes nothing,” Betty took a deep breath, straightened her ponytail, and accepted the request.

It took a few seconds to connect and as it was going through, Betty wasn’t sure what to expect when it did. What she got was a fairly handsome guy in a gray crown beanie. As soon as he saw her, he smiled.

“Hey there,” he said with a wave.

“I really thought I was just going to see a close up of a penis,” Betty confessed with a nervous chuckle.

“Same here, to be honest,” the guy agreed. “Wow, you are just really pretty.”

Betty was sure she was blushing and just hoped the camera wasn’t picking it up.

“So this is me, and this is my apartment,” the guy picked up his laptop and moved it around so Betty could see the living room. “Do I pass the test?”

It looked like a standard bachelor pad. There was a dart board in the corner of the room, some posters here and there for decoration, framed at least, overfilled bookshelves to suggested he read a lot; nothing to suggest he was anything other than a regular 20 something-year-old guy.

“Yes, yes,” Betty assured him. “Sorry if I seem nervous, I’ve never done this sort of thing before, this was all my roommate’s idea.”  
  
“The one sexiling you?”  
  
“The very one.”  
  
“Well not to worry, I never really did anything like this, either,” He assured her.

“So I’ll see you soon?”  
  
“See you soon!” He did a mock salute.

Betty closed her laptop and set it down next to her on the couch. “I can’t believe I’m actually going all the way to Brooklyn for a booty call, that’s so scandalous!” She exclaimed in disbelief. This wasn’t the kind of thing she did. It was the kind of thing Veronica did.  
  
“Umm, I don’t think your laptop is fully closed,” a voice came from the couch. When she looked over to investigate, Betty saw that her laptop indeed was not fully closed.  
  
“Umm…” Betty panicked “that was just the TV, I’ll see you soon, bye!” She opened her laptop to make sure she turned it off and closed it fully this time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thank you to everyone who left a comment, a kudos, and those who bookmarked it. It means the world to me that you liked the story! <3
> 
> As always a huge thank you to my amazing betas [paalme](http://archiveofourown.org/users/paalme/profile), taidine, and KD.

Betty managed to get back in bed before the owner of the apartment woke up. The door alarm, which started off as small beeps like a rogue fire detector, turned to a blaring siren that finally roused him from his peaceful slumber.

“What the fuck?!” He muttered, clearly disoriented. 

“Is that a burglar alarm?” Betty asked nonchalantly. 

"Did you sleep in your coat?" He asked groggily. 

"I got really cold in the middle of the night..." Betty lied before pointing at the door. "You should go get the intruder!"

He picked up the baseball bat by his bed and meandered over to the front door, giving Betty the opportunity to leave. As soon as he returned, she would just thank him and go. No fuss, no muss. 

"False alarm," he muttered when he stumbled back into bed. 

"Oh, okay, that's good to know," Betty commented, feigning relief. "It sucks that it woke us up. So look this has been nice, but I should..."

Before she even got to finish talking, she heard a steady snoring from the other side of the bed indicating that he was already asleep again. Well shit. He really wasn't going to make this easy for her, was he?

Betty sank back down in the bed with him as she assessed what her options were. He could be asleep for hours and she was not about to stay with him any longer than she had to. Turning to her side, she saw an alarm clock. 

“Bingo,” Betty muttered quietly to herself as she reset the alarm clock by his bed to go off in ten minutes. Much as she wanted to set it for longer, it would have been cruel to wake him up again in such a short span of time, and she figured ten minutes would be a good compromise. 

The longest ten minutes of her life, she thought. As she waited for the proverbial bell to save her, she looked around his nightstand, curiosity getting the better of her. Last night besides the sex, which could be classified as okay at best, they didn't really have much in the way of conversation, and since she had no reason to interact with him ever again, looking at what he had near his bed seemed to be as good a way of getting to know him. The first thing she saw in the top drawer was a huge package of condoms.    


"Someone's ambitious..." Betty muttered quietly to herself, carefully putting them back.    
  
She also found a copy of  _ In Cold Blood _ and started flipping through it when the alarm went off, leading her to throw it hastily back where she found it and feign sleep. Her date from the previous night - Jeg? Jed? - whatever his name was, leaned over her to turn off the alarm, finally waking up.   
  
“That’s some alarm,” Betty commented as she covered her ears.   

"I don't remember setting my alarm. Especially not for..." he looked over at the clock "11:04 AM."

"These things happen, what can I say? Sometimes you set your alarm for random times without even remembering it," Betty rambled looking for an opportunity to leave. The longer she was in the apartment, the longer she just wanted to get out. To go back to Veronica's apartment. To take a hot shower and get into her pajamas and binge watch The Crown on Netflix. 

“Weird,” he murmured sleepily as he settled back in the bed next to her. “Good morning, Betty.”

“Good morning, Jed,” Betty replied with a small chuckle. 

“It’s Jug, actually,” he corrected. “As in Jughead.”

“Right,” Betty nodded. “What’d I say?”

“Jed.”

Betty furrowed her brow, “Say it your way again?”

“Jughead,” he repeated. 

No wonder she didn’t remember it. That easily had to have been the strangest name Betty had ever heard in her life. 

“Got it, sorry,” Betty noted as she sat up. “Last night was great, so thank you for that.”

Jughead rolled over on his side and propped himself up on his elbow. “I just wonder what we’re going to say when we tell our grandkids how we met.”

Betty laughed. The sex might not have been great but he did have a fantastic sense of humor. “I guess we’ll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it.”

"Do you want to have some breakfast? I make this great oatmeal with a jelly smiley face." He offered. "I mean I don't know what you usually do the next day."

"I'm sorry, usually?" Betty glared at him. “Like I do this enough times to have a  _ usual _ ?”

"Right, no, I don’t know how many times you’ve done this,” he clarified.

"I thought I made it clear last night that I’ve never done anything like this. Ever in my life," Betty seethed. She gripped the cuff of her sleeves to stop herself from going further. 

"I mean that's pretty much what everyone says. You know that, right?" He quipped as he sat up fully in the bed.

In that moment Betty honestly thought she was going to strangle him. It’s like last night she went to bed with Doctor Jekyll and woke up with Mister Hyde. She got up from the bed, feeling disgusted with herself that she’d spent the night with this idiot.    
  
"For me, it's the truth, I’ve  _ never _ done anything like this, ever," Betty doubled down. “The only reason why I’m even here is because my roommate forced me to!”   
  
"Sure, I mean whatever makes you feel better about what we did last night," he ran his hand through his hair.   
  
"Okay you know what, Jeg, I'm done trying to explain my life choices to you. If you don't want to believe the truth that's your business but I have other things I have to do today so if you could disengage the alarm on your door I'll just be on my merry way and you can get back to whatever it is you were planning on doing today." Betty turned and started walking towards the door.

"It's Jug," he said as he got up and jumped between her and the door. “And I’m pretty sure this time it’s on purpose, because I just told you my name was Jughead!”

“It wasn’t on purpose,” Betty sneered “But don’t worry you just have a stupid name. What kind of parent names their child Jughead?!”

“Okay cool, well it was nice having sex with you,” Jughead waved. 

“Oh, I wish I could say the same thing,” Betty commented snidely. 

“Well it sure did sound like you had a good time last night,” Jughead retorted. 

Her hand on the doorknob, Betty turned around, eyes squinted in anger. 

“Don’t believe everything you hear, like ‘wow, Jughead’s such a unique and interesting name’. 'Jughead' sounds like you just pulled two random strips of paper from a bowl and came up with a name!” She spat back, throwing up air quotes around his name.  
  
“Okay, fuck you, Betty,” Jughead sneered.

“Fuck you back!” Betty responded. 

Betty stormed out of his apartment and trudged down the stairs in a huff. How dare he say all those things to her?! And seriously, with that name! At least she never had to see Jughead, whatever the hell his last surname was, ever again in her life. Or so she thought…

...it seemed like fate, or at least mother nature, had a different idea in mind. As Betty tried to open the front door, she found that it would just not budge. Looking down, she saw the cause: a massive amount of snow that had piled up, blocking her in what had effectively become the absolute worst case scenario of her entire life.  

Trying to stay calm, Betty sat down at the foot of the stairwell to regroup and consider her options. It was then that she heard a very familiar voice echoing off the walls.

"No seriously, the whole thing was unbelievable, I have to tell you about it. So just picture me, this perfect angel, being woken up by a complete nightmare of a person with a perky blonde ponytail and..." He was carrying a laundry basket downstairs as he was ranting about their encounter, stopping only when he saw her. "I gotta call you back, Sweet Pea."

He was still wearing the t-shirt he slept in but with a flannel button up over it. He also put on jeans and the crown-shaped grey beanie from the night before. 

"Hey, Jughead, was it?" Betty started, putting on as sweet and innocent an act as she could. 

"Couldn't get the door open because of a little snow?" He smirked as he put his laundry basket down on the bottom of the staircase. "Alright, I'll help. Though I really gotta say, you downstate folks are such wimps. I come from a small town upstate and if you city dwellers had to spend one day in our winter, you wouldn't last an hour."

He pushed the door and just like with Betty, it wouldn't budge. That was when he looked down. "Holy shit, that's a lot of snow!"

Betty sighed and nodded, resigned to her fate. This was without a doubt the universe punishing her. Or maybe her late grandmother. She should have just listened to her gut instinct and stayed home the night before but no, she just had to listen to Veronica and go out. Now she was stuck with the most unpleasant man in the world.   
  
"Okay I know things are weird between us, but I can't just let you sit here. Do you want to come back up to my apartment until the storm blows over? I can make you that oatmeal I told you about." He offered.   
  
"Okay," Betty nodded, following him back upstairs to his apartment. It wasn’t like she had any better choice at the moment. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't had a chance to respond to the comments on chapter 2 yet, but I've seen them and they mean the world to me. Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment, leave kudos, and bookmark. 
> 
> Shoutout as always to my beta readers [paalme](http://archiveofourown.org/users/paalme/profile), taidine, and KD.

The first thing they did when they got upstairs was to turn on the news to see just how bad the storm was. The weather anchor, Stew Storms, seemed a bit too excited to report that the five boroughs were going to be "pounded" with as much as a record 40 inches of snow that was going to drag the entire subway system to a grinding halt.   
  
"I cannot stress enough how important it is for you to hunker down, because this is going to be a long one, folks," Stew Storms warned. "And if you're in one of the outer boroughs, forget about seeing a snowplow until tomorrow morning at the earliest."

Betty doubled over on the couch. This could not. Be. Happening. Of all the days for there to be a snowpocalypse, why did it have to wait for her to be trapped in a borough she's been to only a handful of times since she even moved to the city? As she turned her head to look at Jughead, he seemed completely unmoved by the news. Like he had no care in the world that he was just stuck for an unforeseen amount of time. It only served to infuriate Betty further.

"So I guess we'll be..." he started.    
  
"I have to make a phone call," Betty cut him off. "I live with a very over-protective friend and if I don't let her know where I am and that I'm okay, she might try to track me down and that just wouldn't end well. For you, I mean."  
  
"Be my guest."  
  
Betty got off the couch and walked over to a corridor where she could get some semblance of privacy.  
  
It took a few rings for the call to connect and when it did, Veronica sounded completely distracted.   
  
"Veronica? Are you there?!" Betty asked frantically.   
  
"Yes, I'm here, I'm here," Veronica assured her.  
  
"I never should have listened to you! I'm stuck in Brooklyn, I have no idea when I can leave, the guy I’m with is one of the most miserable human beings on the face of the planet and... is Archie there with you? You're not even listening to me, are you?"  
  
"I'm listening, I just don't really see what I can do to help you, honey. Are you watching the news?"  
  
Betty sighed. She knew Veronica was right but that still didn't stop her from grasping at straws. "I mean, your parents are rich, right? They must own a helicopter! Can't they just airlift me out of here?!"  
  
"You're being ridiculous," Veronica admonished her. "Look just hold tight and Archiekins and I will get you out as soon as we can."  
  
"Vee!"  
  
"I gotta go, hang in there! Bye!" Veronica didn't even wait for Betty to answer before hanging up on her.

Betty stared at her phone for a few seconds before summoning up the courage to go back to the living room and face Jughead again. He was sitting on the couch, typing something on his laptop.  
  
"So should I be worried about your over-protective roommate hunting me down?" He asked sarcastically.  
  
"No, I made sure she knew I was safe and would get home as soon as the snow cleared," Betty lied.  
  
"Just stuck with one of the most miserable human beings on the face of the planet?" He shot her a pointed glance.  
  
Betty blushed furiously. "Oh you uhh, heard that?"  
  
"Walls are pretty thin," Jughead noted. Before Betty could think of a reasonable explanation, he chimed in again. "Don't worry, I'm used to it."  
  
"Still, I shouldn't have..." Betty stammered. Comments like that were not her style, just another thing to add to the list of aberrations for the last day. Or to be honest, the last year.   
  
"Still want that breakfast?" He asked, getting up from the couch.   
  
"Yeah, sounds good." Betty sighed anemically.

* * *

Jughead asked her if raspberry jelly was okay. Betty nodded, it happened to be her favorite but even if it hadn’t been, she wasn’t the kind to complain. The oatmeal he set in front of her was cute. If Betty had been in a better mood, a better headspace, she would have loved it. But that day she found her appetite lacking.  
  
"It’s what I deserve,” she grumbled after taking a small bite of the oatmeal. “This is penance.”

“That officially has got to be the worst review my oatmeal has ever received,” Jughead commented.

“This is what I get for slutting it up,” Betty went on.

“So you think God made this blizzard to punish you for having a one night stand?” Jughead asked skeptically.

“No, that’s ridiculous,” Betty shook her head, “I think it was my grandmother. I'm just not sure how to prove it.”

If anyone had the free time to monitor her sexual activity and send punishment in the form of apocalyptic level precipitation, it would absolutely be her late grandmother, Helen, who was so staunchly religious that Betty’s family only visited her around Easter.

“Well, I think the next twenty-four hours might be better if we tried talking. We could even forget that we slept together last night if that would make things less awkward for you. That way we could attribute the circumstances we’re in to weather and not some passive-aggressive grandma,” Jughead offered.

“Mmm mmm” Betty shook her head “That is not possible. I’ve seen your penis, you’ve implied I’m a slut. Those are big things.”

“Did you just call my penis big?” Jughead teased with a smirk that was way too big for Betty’s liking.

“No,” she said firmly. “I called the implication of your penis big. Those are two totally different things.”

“Whatever you say, Betty,” He chuckled.

“You can’t just pretend that two people didn’t have sex,” Betty exhaled.

"We can do it," Jughead insisted, sticking his spoon in his oatmeal, the jelly melted to the point where the smile was distorted into an ambiguous blob. "Hi, I'm Jughead Jones."

Jughead reached out his hand, a sincere look in his eyes.   
  
"Fine," Betty sighed and reached out to shake his hand. "Nice to meet you, Jughead, I'm Betty Cooper."

"So Betty, what do you do?"  
  
"No, uh-uh, I am not going there," Betty shook her head at the question. She had no say in being stuck in the apartment but she absolutely was not going to deal with another person questioning her about her lack of employment.

They sat in an awkward silence as they finished their oatmeal.

“My, time just flies when you’re having fun,” Jughead commented sardonically after a few minutes.

“Fine,” Betty conceded as she took her bowl to the sink. Instead of going back to the kitchen table she chose to hop up on the counter. She pulled the cuffs of her sleeves over her palms before she warned him, “But if this is going to work you can't ask me any upsetting questions."

"I didn't realize that was an upsetting question," Jughead muttered, an innocent expression on his face. He tapped his fingers on the table lightly for a few seconds before coming back with "Do you... like... dogs?"  
  
Betty nodded approvingly. “Yes, good, non-upsetting question. I do like dogs. Do you?”  
  
“I guess,” He shrugged nonchalantly. “We had a sheepdog growing up named Hot Dog. He was okay.”  
  
Before Jughead could ask her anything else, Betty announced that she had to use the restroom and jumped off the counter. In the background she heard Jughead mutter something but she couldn’t quite make out the exact words. Not that she cared.   
  
At least she could hide out in the bathroom for a few minutes. The bathroom wasn’t as spacious as Veronica’s, but still pretty roomy. One notable feature was the large stacks of magazines on the counter. Figuring she was trying to kill some time while being there in the first place, she might as well make it more enjoyable, Betty grabbed the first one off the pile and flipped through it.

It turned out to be a mistake.   
  
With her luck, the first story she landed on was “The 5 Girls You Meet Online” and number 2 was “Damaged Girl Getting Back on the Horse”. Betty so desperately wanted to disregard the article. To put the magazine back and write it off as some stupid thing not worth her time or energy, but she couldn’t stop looking at it. Everything about it was just so on point about her, down to the caricature of the sad blonde sitting in pajamas, eating ice cream directly from the container.   
  
“Damaged? I’ll show you damaged.” Betty muttered as she ripped the page out and tossed it between her legs into the toilet bowl. Flushing the inflammatory words down the toilet was incredibly cathartic and just the thing she needed after the past twelve hours.  
  
He was sitting on the couch, typing something on his laptop when Betty returned.   
  
“Can I borrow your laptop to check my email?” Betty asked as she sat down next to him.  
  
“Yeah, sure, just let me close out first,” Jughead said absentmindedly as he typed out a few more words, hit a few keys to save and close out of Word, and handed the computer over to Betty. He even got up and walked away to the other side of the room to give her some semblance of privacy while she checked her messages.

“Umm, sorry to interrupt, but what exactly did you do in my bathroom?” He asked, a few minutes after giving her the computer.   
  
“What are you talking about?” Betty set the laptop down on the couch and walked over to Jughead when she saw the immediate consequences of her catharsis. Water flooded out of the door at an alarming pace.

“I got this! I will clean this up!” Betty insisted, pulling off her boots and socks so she wouldn’t get them dirty and wet. “Just go to your room!”  
  
Betty opened the door of the bathroom just enough to ease into the room, locking it behind her so Jughead couldn’t follow and see what happened.

Of course, this would happen to her. She dares to have a meaningless one night stand and she ends up having mediocre sex with a guy whose apartment she can’t even leave the next day. She tries to have a “girl power” moment and flush an article that insults everything she is down to her very core, and it gets stuck in his shoddy plumbing. And of course, he didn’t even have a plunger so she couldn’t get the stuck article out of the toilet.

“Is everything okay in there?” Jughead called from the other side of the door.   
  
“Where’s your plunger?!” Betty shouted back while turning the handle to shut the water flow to the toilet, in hopes of at least ebbing the flow that way.

“It should be there…” Jughead started. Without a plunger, Betty started putting down the towels to at least somewhat clean things up.   
  
“Oh wait! I just remembered I lent my buddy my plunger a few days ago. Really starting to think I shouldn’t have done that.” Jughead added.  
  
“There are about a million reasons why you shouldn’t do that!” Betty admonished him. Great. She was officially the girl who broke stranger’s toilets. Add that to the resume.   
  
“Just leave it, I’ll take care of it later,” Jughead assured her.   
  
Every fiber of her being wanted Betty to not listen to him. To find some way to locate a plunger and take care of the problem right away. But with seemingly no hope of getting that done, she sighed, took a towel out to clean up the mess outside, and left the bathroom. Throwing down the towel on the floor of the hallway, Betty stepped on it to wipe off her feet before grabbing her shoes and boots.   
  
“Seriously, what did you flush?” Jughead’s question was laced more with curiosity than accusation, but it didn’t make Betty want to answer it anymore.  
  
“None of your business.” She shoved him aside and walked to the couch to put her socks and shoes back on.  
  
“Umm, I think based on the fact that it’s  _my_  toilet that’s overflowing, it very much is my business.”

Betty chose to ignore him, focusing her attention back on her email.

* * *

“So I might actually have an idea on how to pass the time,” Jughead commented.

“What?” Betty asked skeptically.

“Do you want to get high?” Jughead offered.

Betty looked at him like he had sprouted a second head.

“I mean, we don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he stammered. “I still think I might get high, though, so I hope you don’t mind.”

“Your apartment,” Betty shrugged.

Jughead pulled out a teal bong with ceramic angels on it. “My friend made this. I try to encourage his creativity.”

Betty watched as he lit the bong, inhaled, and then blew out a puff of smoke.

“Sorry, I would open a window but… you know,” Jughead shrugged.

“And here I was starting to wonder why you were single,” Betty commented as she closed the laptop and set it gently on the couch.

“I will have you know that I am a catch,” he said with faux offense.

“I bet you $50 that you’re going to die alone.”

“My future widow will be more than happy to take your money,” Jughead commented after taking another hit off the bong. He offered the bong to her once again. “Just give it a chance. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“I have gotten high before!” Betty insisted, arms crossed defiantly.

“You haven’t gotten high with me,” Jughead grinned.

Betty considered his words. She really didn’t have anything to lose at that point.

“Fine,” she sighed. “Hand it over.”  


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're officially past the halfway mark now. As always thank you to everyone who took the time to comment, leave kudos, and bookmark.
> 
> Thank you to my beta readers [paalme](http://archiveofourown.org/users/paalme/profile), taidine, and KD.

It didn’t take long for the weed to kick in and once it did Betty definitely felt herself start to mellow out.

“So, was it a great idea or what?” Jughead teased.

“It was an okay idea,” Betty corrected. She might have been high, but she refused to give him credit.

Jughead put the bong aside and with all seriousness asked. “Wanna play ping pong?”

“Sure,” Betty shrugged.

It took some finagling to get half of the table collapsed but after a few minutes they got it down and had a game going.

“So earlier when you asked me what my job was, you may have noticed I got a little sensitive,” Betty commented as she served the ball.

“That rings a bell, sure,” Jughead teased, hitting the ball back.

“Well, that is because I am sort of in between jobs at the moment.” Betty missed the ball as she spoke. Leaning down she picked it up and set it down on the table with a sigh. “A year ago I had an internship, but then I had a nervous breakdown and had to quit because it was just too much. So I’ve been staying at my friend’s apartment and telling myself that I’m on a sabbatical and I’ll put that journalism degree I worked so hard for to use any day now, but really all I’ve been doing is obsessively cleaning the apartment and eating way more raw cookie dough than is probably healthy.”

After confessing the details of her lost year, Betty felt freer. With a sigh she served the ball back to Jughead, who caught it instead of hitting it back.

“At least you’re planning on doing something with your degree,” Jughead bounced the ball against the table. “I got a job that was in a completely different field because I needed the money.”

Betty looked down solemnly and tapped her paddle against the table. “At least you have a job,” she said softly.

She heard Jughead put his paddle down but didn’t notice that he walked over to her until he was standing right in front of her.

“Hey,” he lifted her chin gently. “Wanna build a blanket fort?”

Betty nodded.

* * *

For two people who only knew each other for about twelve hours - and were various shades of hostile to each other for most of the time they were awake - Betty and Jughead worked surprisingly well together when putting up the blanket fort. Although his apartment wasn’t really decorated for Christmas - certainly not like the leftover decorations that still adorned Betty and Veronica’s abode - he did have some string lights that created a nice sense of ambiance.

Jughead brought a small record player into the blanket fort. He also filled a bunch of bowls with various snacks and brought them over. Despite the awkward and downright unpleasant start to the day, even Betty had to admit, it was a really nice way to spend a day snowed in.

“This is my first time in a blanket fort,” she admitted.

“First time?” Jughead echoed, a teasing expression on his face “What do you think of the experience so far?”  
  
“So far I like it. I just wish we didn’t leave the snacks so far away.” The problem of the blanket fort was that the lack of space meant having to leave the food outside in order to get into the fort. “I’ll go out and get them.”  
  
“No, wait,” Jughead put up his hand to cut her off, stopping her before she moved. He pulled on the blanket under the bowls of chips and candy he assembled, dragging the food over to them.  
  
“That is so clever!” Betty laughed, marveling at the ingenuity.  
  
“It’s not my first blanket fort,” Jughead admitted with a wink as he casually tossed a few m&ms into his mouth. “I used to make them all the time with my sister when we were younger.”

“Is your sister younger or older?”  
  
“Four years younger. Her name is Jellybean but she goes by JB.”  
_  
What is with this family and names?_ Betty thought to herself but dared not bring up that can of worms again. Instead, she tried to keep it positive. “I have a sister, too. But she’s two years older. Her name’s Polly.”

“Well, would you look at that, we actually have something in common,” he teased. “My father was an alcoholic who lost almost all of our money and my mother left when I was nine because she couldn’t handle his drinking. I had to keep my sister calm most nights, feed her most days. That’s how I came up with the smiley face in the oatmeal. There was a month where it was the only thing she would eat.”  
  
He smiled as he told the story, obviously removed enough from the trauma to be able to joke about it. But it gave Betty a greater appreciation for the man she was sharing the blanket fort with.  
  
“What about you?” He asked, looking for reciprocation. “What’s the story with your family?”  
  
“Nothing as interesting as yours, I’m afraid,” Betty sighed and pulled the cuffs of her sweater over her palms. “My parents were high school sweethearts. Still happily married. Even my sister is happily married to her high school sweetheart. It’s just an abundance of happiness in my family.”

“And you’re not happy?” Jughead pried.  
  
“I didn’t say that.”  
  
“You’re snowed in the apartment of a guy you had a regrettable one night stand with.” Jughead challenged.

“I’m having a good time now,” Betty admitted honestly.  
  
“Glad to hear it.” His smile seemed genuine.  
  
“So tell me more about yourself,” she said, interested in getting to know him more. “What is it that you do for a living that’s so different from the college degree you got?”  

“I got a degree in creative writing but now I work in construction,” Jughead shrugged. “Our parents didn’t really bother setting up a college fund for us, so I’m trying to pay for as much of my sister’s tuition as possible so she doesn’t have to take out loans.”

“You’re a really good brother,” Betty commented before she even realized.

“I try,” Jughead smirked. He leaned over and flipped on the record player, filling the apartment with the sounds of “Walking on a Dream” by Empire of the Sun.  

“This song,” she commented, eyes wide. “You should turn it off.”  
  
“You don’t like it?” Jughead asked with a chuckle.

“No, I love this song.” Betty started swaying. “I love it so much, that it’s going to make me want to dance.”

“You should do it,” Jughead dared her.

“No, that’s a terrible idea,” Betty shook her head, still swaying to the music.

“Why?” Jughead chuckled. “Are you a terrible dancer?”

“I am an amazing dancer.” Betty got up on her knees and leaned closer to Jughead “But if you see me dance you will become so entranced that it will just be embarrassing for both of us.”

Jughead leaned in closer “Is that so?”

“Yes,” Betty nodded “Which is why it’s very important that you stay in here. It’s for your own protection.”

Betty carefully made her way out of the fort and to a clear area in the living room. As Betty walked away from the fort she noticed Jughead had turned up the volume on the music. Confident Jughead couldn’t see her, for the first time in a long time she allowed herself to let loose and just danced. As she swayed to the music, Betty felt freer than she had in a long time. It was like, for that brief moment in time, she wasn’t the girl who was damaged and unwanted. Without the pressure of everyone else’s expectations, she could just be herself.

"When she got back to the blanket fort at the end of the song she came to a terrible realization.

“So please keep in mind that my diet usually doesn’t consist of this much junk food,” Betty started. “But I was wondering if one needed to use the bathroom, how would one go about that?”  
  
“Right, we still didn’t fix that,” Jughead commented. “I have an idea.”

* * *

Apparently, Jughead’s big idea was to go to his neighbor’s apartment to borrow their plunger. Betty didn’t know what world this guy came from where people were okay with lending each other plungers but at this point, she was so desperate to use the bathroom she was willing to put up with the weirdness.  
  
“Mister Wheeler,” Jughead said as he knocked on the door. “It’s your neighbor, Jughead.”

Betty looked over at the mailboxes and saw that one of them was stuffed. She tapped Jughead on the shoulder and pointed over at the mailboxes. “That wouldn’t be their mailbox, would it?”  
  
“Oh right, yeah, they mentioned going on vacation.”  
  
“So what are we going to do now?”  
  
“I have an idea,” Jughead said as he took Betty by the hand and pulled her back towards his apartment.  
  
After a few minutes of rooting around in his closet, Jughead emerged holding two snowsuits, red and bright pink. He handed Betty the bright pink snowsuit.  
  
“Seriously?” Betty asked skeptically.

“We can use the fire escape to go up to the roof of the building and climb down and get into my neighbor’s apartment that way,” Jughead explained. “I know your pink leather jacket is cute, but it won’t do shit against the snowpocalypse outside. So put this on.”    
  
Betty took the garment from him and held it out a foot away from her body.  
  
“It was my grandmother’s, so all style complaints should go to her.”

With a sigh, Betty took the snowsuit and put it on. Desperate times called for desperate measures.  
  
“Ready?” Jughead asked her when they were both suited up.  
  
“Ready,” Betty nodded.

The climb to the Wheeler’s apartment was surprisingly not as difficult as Betty thought it would be. What neither of them accounted for was that their window would be frozen shut because of the snow.

“We’ll figure something else out. We’ll just go back to the apartment and regroup.” Jughead tried to reassure her. But with the storm brewing in her stomach, his assurances meant nothing.  
  
“There is no going back!” Betty picked up a nearby brick and smashed the window to get in.  
  
As she was easing through the broken window she vaguely heard Jughead screaming “What the hell is wrong with you?!”    
  
“It was an emergency, I’m sure your neighbors would understand,” Betty called out as she ran to the bathroom.

Unfortunately for her, Jughead Jones, bane of her earthly existence, was faster, and cut her off right as she got to the door. “It’s an emergency, I’m sure you understand.”  
  
Betty was ready to kill him. She normally wasn’t a violent person but she was ready to take that stupid crown beanie off his head and shove it down his throat if he didn’t get out of the bathroom.

“Oh look at that, I didn’t even have to go,” Jughead commented smugly as he got out of the bathroom thirty seconds later. Betty gave him a death glare before she shoved him out of the way and went in for the sweet relief she so desperately needed.

When Betty got out she saw Jughead taping up his neighbor’s window. She went over to the desk in the room and sat down, watching him work. His snowsuit was half off, revealing the matching red thermal shirt he had underneath. It clung to his form, accentuating his lean muscles, and if Betty weren’t so angry with him, she probably would have appreciated the view.  
  
“I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t feel like I absolutely had to,” Betty reasoned.  
  
Jughead looked over at her, eyes squinted like he was trying to see through her, then sighed and shook his head. “You just tell yourself what you need to.”

* * *

Back in the apartment, Betty was checking her email when she heard Jughead’s voice call out from the bathroom. “Well, I think we solved the mystery of what was clogging the toilet!”

A sense of horror came over Betty. “I told you I would take care of that!”  
  
She ran over to the bathroom to see Jughead pulling a soggy paper out of the toilet.  
  
“Just… give that to me!” Betty tried to grab the paper from Jughead’s hand.

“Betty, don’t be ridiculous. It was in the toilet.” Jughead admonished as he held his arm out to stop Betty from getting closer. Seeing she clearly wasn’t going to win, Betty went back to the living room, with the hopes that she could hide from what was to come. She could just see him now, laughing at her and telling her how stupid she was.

“Betts, it was just a stupid article.” When Betty looked over, she saw Jughead sitting near the couch, looking at her without a hint of judgment. She put her head back down on the pillow, gripping it with both hands to avoid doing something else. “If you had a problem with the reading material, you could have just told me so.”

“Here’s the thing,” Betty lifted her head from the pillow long enough to say, “It wasn’t completely wrong. In fact, that article wasn’t wrong at all. It was completely spot on, down to the caricature.”

“Do you really think my name sounds like I put two random words together?” Jughead asked after a beat. Betty turned her head to look at Jughead and weighed her options.

“No…” Betty said weakly. Jughead flashed her a disbelieving look. “Okay maybe, yes, I do. But like two words that go really well together.”  
  
“Nice save,” Jughead chuckled.

“Is the real thing really that much worse?”  
  
“Forsythe Pendleton Jones.”  
  
“Ouch.”  
  
“The third.”  
  
"The third?”

“Yeah, my great grandfather was some rich, high society snob who thought it was a good name. But then my grandfather lost most of the family money and my father lost what little we had left. About a year after that my Mom left we moved to a trailer park; the fancy name is the only high-class thing we have left.” Jughead explained.  
  
“So since you’re the third, do you think you’ll carry on the tradition if you have a son?” Betty asked.  
  
“Not a fucking chance,” Jughead shook his head. “I’d rather be called Jughead.”  
  
“I’m sorry I made fun of your name. I was just trying to say something to get under your skin.” Betty confessed.  
  
“It’s fine. It’s a silly name,” Jughead admitted. “Though I do have to ask about that other thing you said.”  
  
“What thing?” Betty feigned ignorance.  
  
“When you said last night wasn’t good for you?” He sounded so sincere and almost heartbroken, that Betty really didn’t even know how to respond. “Did you really fake it?”

“Why are you even thinking about it now? What happened to pretending we never had sex?” Betty deflected.

“I haven’t stopped thinking about it all day,” Jughead admitted.

Betty sat up on the couch and pulled her sweater cuffs over her palms. She sighed, deciding to just go for the truth, or at least a shade of it. “I told you, I was just trying to say whatever I could to get under your skin.”

“I know, but I’ve found people are most often honest when they’re trying to hurt someone.”

“Okay but that can’t have been the first time you heard that, right?”  
  
He shot her a confused expression. “I mean my last partner seemed pretty satisfied…”  
  
“Oh Jug, she was probably faking.”  
  
“Okay, but how do you know?”  
  
“Did she come before you? After you? The same time?”  
  
“Usually we would come... simultaneously…” he muttered as he tapped his hands together, avoiding Betty’s eyes.

“That’s not how it works.” His gaze shot up. “And I mean it’s not your fault. Well, not totally your fault. It’s just so much easier for you guys. It’s just friction. For us, it’s a whole complicated system down there and if things don’t go just right, it’s just easier to pretend something happened. It’s not right that we do that, it shouldn’t happen, it doesn’t help either party but it’s just kinda the way it is.”  
  
Jughead got up off the couch and sat next to Betty. “So then tell me what I did wrong.”

She gripped the cuffs of her sweater. “It’s not that you did anything wrong, it’s about how people mesh.”

“You think we didn’t mesh well?”

“You did?”

“I mean, it was the first time so there was bound to be awkwardness…”

Betty sighed. “It’s not like it gets easier to say something later on. Guys can be so sensitive, so if you say something after the first time, it’s too soon, but if you wait then they’ll wonder if you were judging them the whole time. You almost have to devise some training system to get them to recognize what different moans mean and hope that works. Or at least that’s what I’ve always done.”

“I just got an idea,” Jughead announced.

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“No, no, just hear me out,” Jughead insisted as he got up off the couch and stood in front of Betty. “We’re stuck in this apartment for at least a few more hours. We’ve already slept together but we don’t have any feelings for each other. We don’t know any of the same people so there’s no chance of running into each other once you leave. And as soon as the snow clears you’re definitely gone, right?”

“Far, far away,” Betty confirmed.

“So we could take the time to go over what each of us did wrong and learn for the next person that we encounter,” Jughead proposed.

“What each of us did wrong?”  
  
He sat down in front of Betty. “Yeah, did you think this was just a one-sided thing?”

Betty considered his offer. It was ridiculous… right? Not something a sane person would ever agree to and yet it was an intriguing proposal. The self-loathing part of Betty’s brain, the one that sounded like her mother, kicked into high gear, telling her that maybe if she knew what she did wrong in bed, she could prevent someone else from cheating on her the way Chuck did.

“Fine,” Betty sighed. “Go for it. But I’m not holding back after.”

Jughead jumped up, moving to stand in front of where she was sitting on the couch. He seemed just a bit too enthusiastic for Betty’s liking.

“Okay so first of all, what is it with the lights being completely off? I mean it seems like almost every girl I’ve ever encountered has always wanted to have the lights off and I just don’t get that,” Jughead started “When I’m with someone, I want to see them. When the lights are off, it could be anyone.”  
  
“So guys really like it with the lights on?” Betty asked incredulously.  
  
“I mean I can only speak for myself and my friends, but yes,” Jughead confirmed.  
  
“Alright, lights on, good to know,” Betty nodded. “What else?”

“You got undressed just way too fast,” Jughead complained. “It was like your clothes were on fire, and you had to get them off as quickly as possible to avoid getting burned.”  
  
“No one has ever complained about how quickly I got naked,” Betty countered. “Most guys like seeing me naked.”

“Seeing you naked was great. There was just no enticement in it, maybe you could make more of a show out of it.” Jughead twirled around as he pretended to do a striptease, taking off an imaginary bra and panty set.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Betty nodded.

“Lastly, at some point, you started helping yourself and it just made me feel like... I wasn’t really needed there. Almost like I was an afterthought.”

“Is that about it?” Betty glared.

“Yeah, that’s really all I can think of,” Jughead shrugged.  
  
“Alright, my turn.”

Betty and Jughead swapped positions on the couch.

“So first off, I have no idea who came up with the whole using the alphabet thing for oral but it doesn’t make me feel sexy, it makes me feel like I’m Helen Keller being screwed by her teacher. Which surprisingly, is not actually a fantasy of mine,” Betty started “Oh and at some point during foreplay, I was very close to coming, I think I pointed this out to you somehow.”

“You said ‘I’m close to coming’,” Jughead mumbled.

“And so why didn’t you just stick to what you were doing? It was working so well,” Betty couldn’t keep the exasperation out of her voice.

“I was thinking that I should try something different to really get you all the way,” he rationalized.

“Well next time, just stick to what you were doing,” Betty advised. “And you should really know, hickeys are never appreciated. Especially in places where they have to be covered by makeup.”

Betty sat back down on the couch by Jughead before she continued, “I don’t know where the idea came about that a woman helping herself is bad. We’re working towards the same goal, we’re not competing against each other!”

“I hadn’t really thought of it that way,” Jughead commented.

“One last thing, probably the most important note I could give you. After we were done you retreated to the other side of the bed like you dropped a bomb down there. Maybe next time just hug the girl, count to ten, then roll over. It will make a big difference, I promise.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Jughead said softly.

“Other than those things I mentioned you were a perfectly adequate lover.” Betty tapped his knee gingerly.

“Wow, you sure know what to say to say to help a guy’s ego.” Jughead rubbed the back of his neck.

“See, I knew this was a terrible idea, I knew this was going to end this way,” Betty sighed.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Jughead shook his head. “I asked and you told me the truth.”

“If it’s any consolation, you’re a great kisser,” Betty weakly tried to salvage the situation.

“Betty, don’t worry, really,” Jughead insisted with a sarcastic chuckle as he reached for the remote. “We should probably check the weather, though.”

On channel 12, Stew Storms was standing in the middle of what looked like a snowglobe. “Folks, the snow is still coming down hard with no signs of stopping. Just take a look behind me, that’s the Empire State Building! But you can’t see it at all because of all this snow!”

“I bet you $50 that Stew Storms has a raging hard-on right now,” Betty joked. Jughead chuckled.

“Is it okay if I take a shower?” Betty asked.

“Yeah, go ahead,” Jughead nodded. “The towels are… well, they’re all on the floor.”

When Betty got to his bathroom she saw the towels were indeed all on the floor. She sighed and considered not taking the shower but then found the last clean, dry towel on the rack. She had just turned on the water for the shower when she caught her reflection in the full-length mirror. Instead of taking off her sweater in one fell swoop like she normally would, Betty played with the hem, swaying her hips as she appraised her appearance. It was then that she got what was either the best idea she ever had, or the worst idea she ever had. Either way, it was something she had to try. Betty turned the water off and ran back into the living room. She leaned against the back of the couch and turned off the television to get Jughead’s full attention.  

“I have an idea,” she announced to Jughead who was sitting on the couch, typing something on his laptop.

“What? More critiques?” He asked warily “I don’t think I can take any more right now, Betts.”  
  
"No,” she shook her head. “What if we, _try_ again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have any interest in listening to the song Betty dances to here's the link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE_OizYqWDI. Not necessary for the enjoyment, just thought I'd put it in there for those curious.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you as always to those who take the time to comment, leave kudos, bookmark. You guys keep me going. 
> 
> An EXTRA huge thank you to my betas [paalme](http://archiveofourown.org/users/paalme/profile), taidine, and KD, for helping me write this chapter. I would have been so lost without your guidance.
> 
> As a warning for those who need it, there is an action here associated with body image issues and eating disorders. It's subtle and towards the end of the chapter, it will be added to the tags. For those who are bothered by this but still want to read the story, just skip the paragraph that starts with "Betty didn't even bother", you won't miss anything major, I promise.

They locked gazes.  
  
“Try again, as in…” Jughead started.  
  
“As in, we take the critiques we just gave each other and put them to use to see if we learned anything,” she finished.  
  
“Betty,” Jughead sighed. He closed his laptop and put it on the table in front of him.  
  
“Think about it, this is the perfect experiment,” she reasoned. “Our next partner won’t be able to track our progress because they won’t have anything to compare it to. And we already saw each other naked so we got that awkwardness out of the way.”

Jughead paused for a bit. Betty could practically see the thoughts swirling in his head and she was terrified that he would reject her. The self-conscious voice in her head, the one that sounded like her mother, was almost sure he would. That’s what she should get for throwing herself so shamelessly at a man.  

“Alright, fine,” Jughead nodded. “Let’s do it.”  
  
His response was casual in tone, but it filled Betty with so much joy to have her fears proven wrong.  Betty moved to sit down on the couch next to him. “Great! So we should definitely keep the channel of communication open and be vocal about what’s working and what isn’t.”

Jughead nodded. “Works for me.”

Betty smiled shyly, “So how should we start? I mean should we just kiss or do we go past that or…”  
  
Before Betty got a chance to say anything more Jughead grabbed her face and kissed her.

“Oh,” Betty giggled. “That works, too.”

“Yeah, I thought so.” Jughead nodded before he leaned in to kiss her again.

When they broke apart, Betty got off the couch and took one look back at a dumbstruck Jughead before she headed towards the bed. As she walked away, she made it a point to put an extra sway in her hips.

Betty didn’t make it far past the shelves Jughead used as a room divider before he caught up to her and kissed her again. As they broke apart, they noticed the bed had no sheets on it.

“Do you have sheets somewhere?” Betty asked. “Because no offense, but the stripped bed kinda gives off a crack den vibe.”

“Yeah, give me one second.” Jughead ran over to his dresser and got a fresh set of sheets. “Sorry, laundry day.”

They worked together to put sheets on the bed. Once the bed was made, and no longer looked like a crack den, the pair resumed kissing.

Betty reached up to pull the crown shaped beanie off his head and threw it to the side before she briefly carded her fingers through Jughead’s hair. The pair worked in unison to remove Jughead’s shirt and once it was off, Betty pushed him onto the bed. She sat down next to him and started taking off her boots.

“There’s never a good time to take off shoes and socks so I figured we should get that out of the way now,” she explained.

“Good point,” Jughead commented before he followed suit.

As soon as she was barefoot, Betty walked over to the light switch, turning off the lights in the room out of habit before using the other switch to turn just the light on his bedside table on.  
  
“Great compromise,” Jughead called out from the bed.  
  
“Thank you.” Betty smiled slyly.

With her back to Jughead, Betty pulled her sweater off slowly, swaying her hips like she practiced earlier in the bathroom. Throwing the sweater off to the side, she shimmied out of her jeans, stepping out of them one foot at a time. Still in her tank top and underwear, Betty pressed on. She swiftly removed her tank top, then slowly moved her hand up to unclasp her bra, letting the straps slide down her arms until they reached her elbows. Betty took a deep breath and turned to face Jughead. Before she could lose her nerve, she completely removed her bra and tossed it to the side, then eased out of her cotton panties.

Completely disrobed, Betty felt more exposed than she ever had in her life. Rationally she knew she was being ridiculous. It’s wasn’t like this was the first time she was having sex. Hell, it wasn’t even like it was the first time she was having sex with him! Still, she was nervous.

“Is that something like what you had in mind?” She asked.

Jughead, who was still in his jeans, stared back at Betty, completely mesmerized. “Something like that, yeah.”

“Your turn,” she said softly before she walked to the bed, an extra sway to her hips. When she got to the bed, Jughead held the covers up for her to get in under them. Betty slid in on her knees, hovering over him as she leaned down to kiss him deeply.

Jughead got up from the bed, fumbling with the button on his jeans. After about ten seconds, Betty glided across the bed, taking his hands off the button and undoing it for him, pulling down the zipper along the way. He pulled down his jeans and boxers in one fluid motion.

Betty moved over in the bed to give him room to join her. The first thing he did was kiss her thoroughly, letting his hands roam over her body. After a few seconds, Jughead pulled away from the kiss, looking at Betty with full seriousness.  
  
“Can I do something?” He asked breathlessly. Betty nodded, not trusting her voice. Jughead reached up and pulled the elastic out of Betty’s hair, letting it down from the tight ponytail it had been in all day. He was just about to toss the elastic to the side when Betty stopped him, leaning over to put it on his nightstand instead. As she tried to move back to his side, Jughead pulled her down so she landed on top of him instead.

“Hi,” she breathed.  
  
“Hi back,” he responded, running his hands through her hair. “I’ve been wondering all day what you looked like with your hair down.”  
  
“And what do you think?” She quirked an eyebrow at his confession.

“You are absolutely stunning,” He affirmed.  
  
“Thank you,” Betty blushed. Jughead leaned up to kiss her again. She was so thankful he didn’t do anything about his kissing technique, because he really had that part down pat.

Using slow, subtle movements, Jughead flipped them over so that Betty was laying on her back and he was hovering over her. He kissed her once more before moving down her body, kissing down her neck, her sternum. He squeezed her breasts, lightly flicking her nipples with his thumbs.

“Are you doing okay?” Jughead asked. Betty nodded fervently.

Jughead grinned as he kept moving down the bed, only stopping when settled between her legs. One at a time, he pulled her legs up to rest on his shoulders, kissing down her calf and thigh. He ran his hands along her legs, then ducked down to kiss the inside of her thighs.

Even though the last time he’d gone down on her had quickly turned disastrous, it had started out pleasurable, and this time was no different. The first contact of Jughead’s tongue on Betty’s clit caused a wave of pleasure so strong that her hips bucked involuntarily. Betty felt Jughead’s tongue wriggle around in a pattern of some sort, but not any recognizable one. Certainly not the hacky alphabet trick he had tried the previous night which got her nowhere fast.

“Gotta… say… that new technique… much better…” Betty panted, clutching the bed sheets.

Jughead moved up her body, popping his head out of the sheets. “Japanese alphabet. Thank you, Duolingo.”

Betty chuckled, all but pushing his head back down. Between the Japanese alphabet trick, and the inclusion of his fingers, Betty was certain she wouldn’t last long.

“This… yes…” she moaned, not wanting the immense pleasure to stop. Jughead clearly listened to what she told him, because he kept up with the same actions, keeping his tempo in tune with the levels of her moans. Under his ministrations, Betty came incredibly quickly, lifting her hips off the bed as she rode the wave. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt this good, especially not from something that didn’t involve batteries.

As she came down off her high, Jughead moved back up to lay next to her.

“Better?” He inquired. She nodded, resting her head on his shoulder, silently thanking the heavens for free language learning apps.  
  
“Hey,” he shook her shoulder. “Don’t pass out on me.”  
  
“I wasn’t,” she insisted with a shake of her head “I was just resting.”  
  
“Oh yeah?” He challenged. “Resting? With your eyes closed?”  
  
Betty pushed herself up on the bed, kissing Jughead on the cheek before giving him a wink and moving under the sheets.

“Betty, you don’t have to…” Jughead protested weakly.  
  
“I know,” Betty cut him off “I want to.”

Betty started off slow, with just a teasing lick up his shaft before she took him fully in her mouth. She bobbed up and down slowly, working to get into a good pace. She knew she was on the right track when she felt his hand comb through her hair.

Betty released briefly to ask “Everything good so far?”

“Mhmm, yeah, great,” Jughead commented. “I just don’t want to finish before the main event.”

A part of Betty wanted to disregard him, to take him all the way and make him feel as good as he just made her feel… but they’d agreed to keep the channels of communication open and he’d made his feelings pretty clear.

_I’ll just have to be very careful_ , Betty thought, as she slowed her pace and began to play with his balls. From the groan Jughead emitted, she could tell he wasn’t displeased. Betty finished much like how she started, with a long, slow lick before moving up and emerging from under the sheets.

As Betty settled against the pillows, she noticed Jughead reaching over and pulling out a condom from his nightstand drawer. She stopped him before he could open it, carefully ripping the package and pulling out the latex disc. She maintained eye contact with him, relishing in the bob of his Adam’s apple when he swallowed as she slowly unrolled the condom over him.

Jughead hovered over her, gently rubbing her clit with his index finger a few times before he slowly entered her. It didn’t take long for Betty to realize the sex would be remarkably different this time. The awkward motions and incompatible rhythms that plagued their first encounter were replaced by a slow and deliberate pace that allowed them to sync up with one another. Jughead pumped his hips slowly, taking care to pay attention to her verbal cues and build up speed just when she needed it. Betty clawed at his back, raking her nails over the firm muscle.

Feeling closer to Jughead than she could have ever imagined, Betty pulled him down and kissed him passionately. As they pulled apart, she grabbed him tight across the back and rolled him over so that she was on top. It was something she had always wanted to try but never felt bold enough to do. Taking control, Betty began moving her hips, grinding on top of Jughead as his hands explored her body, caressing her stomach and chest. From this position she was able to make sure he hit every spot she desired with each thrust and that the pace was just right.

It didn’t take long for Betty to come, collapsing on Jughead’s chest in a sweaty tangle of limbs. Jughead thrust against her several more times, careful rhythm dissolving into erratic motions and quick, harsh breaths, before he too went limp with a sigh as satisfied as her own.

“Holy crap, Betts,” Jughead moaned.

“That was… amazing,” Betty agreed as she rolled off him to cool down.

Jughead disposed of the condom then hugged Betty, kissing her neck and shoulder. Betty was fully expecting him to roll over at any second and fall asleep like he had the previous night but he wasn’t showing any signs of moving.

“Hey Jug, can I just run to the bathroom real quick?” She asked, trying to extricate herself from his arms.  
  
“Hmm, sure,” He nodded and opened his arms to let her go.

Betty didn’t even bother putting her underwear or tank top back on as she padded to the bathroom. As she finished up and was about to go back, she took a look at herself in the mirror again, trying to see if her outward appearance reflected the change she felt inside. She pinched at the skin at her hips, her stomach, a relic of previous insecurities and thinking herself not good enough to attract a partner. An action that once filled her with feelings of dread and inadequacy, now just affirmed how upbeat she was feeling.

When she got back to the bed, she was fully expecting Jughead to be asleep. Much to her surprise, he was still awake, albeit clearly on the verge of falling asleep.  
  
“Hey, I thought you’d be asleep by now,” Betty commented as she got back.  
  
“I was waiting for you,” he muttered sleepily, before propping himself up to look at Betty puttering around the room. “What are you doing?”  
  
“Just trying to find my tank top,” Betty explained.

“No,” Jughead shook his head. “Leave it off, just come back to bed.”

“But it’s cold,” Betty complained.

“I’ll keep you warm,” Jughead assured her. “Now get back in here before I have to get out and drag you back in myself.”  
  
“Okay,” Betty giggled, making her way back to the bed.

When she got back in, Jughead reached over her to turn the nightstand light off. True to his word of keeping her warm, he hugged her close to his chest.

“Good night, Betts,” he whispered in her ear, placing a kiss on her cheek.  
  
“Good night, Jug,” she whispered back, but he was already asleep.

Earlier that day, Betty had been so terrified that she would have to spend another night in Jughead’s apartment. Now, lying naked in his arms, she couldn’t think of anywhere in the world she would rather be.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so overwhelmed by the reception to the last chapter! Really glad you enjoyed it and the story. Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment, to leave kudos and bookmark. 
> 
> I think this is the longest chapter in the story so take from that what you will. 
> 
> Huge thank you always to my amazing beta readers [paalme](http://archiveofourown.org/users/paalme/profile), taidine, and KD. You are incredible beyond words.

Betty Cooper woke up in a haze, albeit a not unpleasant one. She was still a bit disoriented, but it didn’t take her as long to figure out where she was as it did the previous day. Despite the fact that she was naked and covered by only a thin sheet, she felt very, very warm - like she was sleeping with a space heater. Betty looked over at the clock on the nightstand and saw it was just past 11 AM. She was comfortable until an errant gurgle from her stomach alerted her to the fact that she had skipped dinner the previous night. When Betty tried to get up, however, she was stopped by the arm on her stomach.  
  
“Stop, early, sleep,” Jughead muttered sleepily beside her as he hugged her tighter to his body. Betty turned around in his arms to face him.  
  
“Jug, we have to get up,” she whispered softly.  
  
Eyes still closed, Jughead scrunched up his face and shook his head “ ‘s early. Sleep, Betts.”  
  
“It’s 11 AM,” Betty laughed.  
  
“AM means it’s still sleeping time,” Jughead explained sleepily.  
  
“I thought working in construction meant having to get up at the crack of dawn?” Betty queried.  
  
Jughead cracked one bleary eye, giving Betty a weary gaze. “It does. During the week. Stop trying to drag me from my bed, woman.”  
  
“Well too bad, I’m hungry,” Betty pouted. She eased his arm off her body and sat up, holding the sheet up to cover her body.  
  
“I guess if we have to get up for any reason, food is a good one,” Jughead sighed as he got up. He placed a lingering kiss on Betty’s shoulder.  
  
They got partially dressed, putting on only the bare minimum. Betty didn’t bother putting on her bra, opting to just go in her panties and tank top, whereas Jughead put on a t-shirt and his boxers. Betty considered putting her hair back up in her usual ponytail but changed her mind when she locked gazes with Jughead. His sleepy smile melted her heart, giving her a newfound sense of confidence and making her change her mind.

They stumbled over to the kitchen, arms tangled up around each other and laughing the entire time. Their laughter ended when they realized Jughead had no food in his fridge other than condiments.  
  
“What happened to all your food?” Betty asked, wide-eyed.  
  
“Well… I had some but we got high and ate it yesterday when we were in the blanket fort…” Jughead covered his face in his hands. “I was planning on going food shopping this weekend but then the storm happened.”

Betty hopped up on his counter and leaned her head against the fridge. “Oh yeah.”

Jughead thought for a moment before he put one hand on her thigh and cupped her shoulder with the other. He leaned forward and brushed his lips against her cheek, “I have an idea on what to do, just go back to bed for now and I’ll bring you some food in ten minutes.”

Betty nodded weakly and left in the direction of Jughead’s bedroom. On the way there she stopped by his bathroom, quickly brushing her teeth by squeezing a bit of his toothpaste onto her finger and using it as a makeshift brush and giving her hair a comb through with her fingers. Veronica, she imagined, would be so proud of her.

The previous day she didn’t really care if she didn’t look a hundred percent her best or if she had the freshest breath. Today was a different day. Today she actually wanted to look good.

When she first met Jughead, Betty had been certain that she wouldn’t want to see him ever again after their initial encounter. But spending the day with him, building the pillow fort with him, getting to know him all made her change her mind.

As she sat under the covers of Jughead’s bed, Betty started to get the feeling that she was really falling for him. She no longer wanted to just make it a one and done thing that she would forget about the next day. She welcomed the idea of exchanging contact information and seeing where things went. Then Betty remembered that New Years was coming up. She smiled to herself at the thought of not being alone and getting a pity kiss from Veronica at just past midnight.

“What are you smiling about?” Jughead asked playfully as he walked into the room with two bowls on a tray. “Unless you were thinking about me, in which case, keep smiling.”  
  
“I was thinking about kissing you...” Betty confessed. Jughead’s eyebrows shot up. “On New Years,” she added with a giggle.  
  
Jughead settled on bed next to her, carefully handing her one of the bowls of noodles before kissing her briefly. “I would be honored to be your New Years kiss.”  
  
Betty blushed and focused her attention on the noodles. The noodles which somehow magically appeared from Jughead’s seemingly empty kitchen... “Where exactly did you get the food from?” She asked, stabbing her bowl suspiciously.  
  
Jughead stopped eating. He put his bowl down in his lap, wiped his mouth with his hand and looked down, averting Betty’s eyes. “Umm, don’t worry about where the food came from.”  
  
A sense of realization dawned over Betty. She grinned broadly as she picked up a few of the noodles, pointing her chopsticks at Jughead. "You got these from your neighbors!"

"What? No!" Jughead deflected.  
  
"You did! Admit it!" She doubled down. "After all that crap you gave me about breaking their window and now you go and steal their noodles! These are contraband noodles!"  
  
"Fine, fine!" Jughead admitted sheepishly.  
  
"Ha!" Betty exclaimed triumphantly. "I knew it!"  
  
"But I didn't steal anything. I left money on the counter for the noodles. And the window." Jughead shot Betty a pointed look. "Though for the record I did think it was kinda hot when you broke the window."  
  
"Thank you!" Betty exclaimed. "I thought so, too!”

“You might not be the most miserable human being on the face of the planet,” Betty admitted after a few minutes of companionable silence. “I’m actually sort of glad I got stuck with you.”

“High praise,” Jughead grinned. “For the record, I’m glad I got stuck with you, too.”

Betty smiled and lightly bumped Jughead’s shoulder with her own.

"So I just need to ask, why did that article bother you so much?" Jughead asked as he put his bowl on the nightstand. "I mean I know you said it was spot on but I still can't see why it would affect you that much."  
  
Betty set her bowl on the other nightstand. “It’s really stupid, you wouldn’t get it.”

“Try me,” he challenged.

"Last year I was engaged," Betty explained as she rubbed her left index finger, which still bore a barely-there tan line. "I had a fiance and an internship at a magazine. Everything was going great... and then my fiance cheated on me."  
  
"Betts..." Jughead tried to cut her off, his voice thick with emotion.  
  
"No, no, it's not one of those typical 'guy cheats on girl, she breaks up with him' stories," Betty continued. "Because I was okay with the cheating. I was so desperate to be loved that I actually wanted to work through things. But he had other ideas. So I had a nervous breakdown, quit my internship, and turned to other ways to cope."

Betty opened her palms slowly, revealing a set of partially healed crescent shaped scars.  
  
Jughead looked at her with an unreadable expression and she was certain that he was going to label her a weirdo, to tell her she needed to see a shrink, that he’d changed his mind about whatever was starting between them and that he wanted nothing to do with her - it wouldn't be the first time she heard that. Instead he took her hands in his, closing hers gently into fists and raising them up to kiss them.

"Your ex-fiance didn't know what he was missing out on," He said firmly. "I've only spent thirty-six hours with you and I can say with authority that he was a complete idiot."  
  
Betty blushed and took her hands back. This was all too much. Too good to be true. But the way he was looking at her, so full of affection, just told her to believe him.  
  
“So you’ve really never had a one night stand before?” Jughead asked.

“Nope.” Betty shook her head.

“Just so you know, they don’t typically last this long,” he explained with a goofy grin.

“I figured. That’s such a shame, though.” Betty chuckled.

“It is.” Jughead nodded

"You know after our conversation yesterday morning, I never would have thought you would be giving me heart eyes," she teased him.

Jughead scoffed, looking down and away from her.  
  
"I am not giving you heart eyes," he insisted.  
  
"Are too!" She doubled down. "But it's totally okay."  
  
"These aren't heart eyes, Betty," Jughead repeated with faux exasperation, "They're... thirsty eyes. I just really need to get something to drink. You want something?"  
  
"Sure," Betty nodded "But they're totally heart eyes, Jones."  
  
"Nuh-uh." Jughead kissed Betty on the cheek before he grabbed their bowls and got up from the bed.  
  
As she waited for him to come back, Betty realized she was starting to get chilly. She considered putting her sweater back on but reasoned she would be much warmer in something of his.  
  
"Hey Jug, would you be okay if I pulled a cliche girl move and borrowed your biggest sweatshirt?" Betty called into the kitchen.

"Yeah, just wait a minute," Jughead called back.  
  
Hearing the yes was more than enough for her. He probably just told her to wait because he wanted to show her where the sweatshirts were. But she also wanted a bit of an excuse to snoop around. How had she not done more of that before? As a journalist, she was inquisitive by nature. Hopping over to the closet, Betty found a black hoodie.

_Perfect_ , she thought, as she started to pull it out. But before she could fully get it off of the hanger, she noticed something else next to it. Something bright, hot pink. Jughead was a lot of things, but he definitely didn't seem like the kind of person to have something bright pink in his closet. Yes, the snowsuit he gave her was bright pink, but he had said he got that as a hand me down from his grandmother and he probably had it around for when his sister visited. And he kept that in a side closet in the hallway. As Betty pushed a few things over she noticed a bunch more distinctively feminine things. Even if they were his sister's things, there was no reason to keep them in the closet by his bed. He lived in a studio apartment.  
  
Somewhere in the back of her mind, the other shoe was beginning its descent.  
  
Betty closed the closet door and went over to Jughead's desk in search for any kind of clue to of ownership of the clothing. It didn't take long to find an answer. In the first drawer was a framed photo. Jughead, with his crown beanie, and a pretty girl with bright pink highlights kissing his cheek. The frame was covered with hearts and had "Jughead and Toni, est. 03. 15. 2015" written on the bottom.

The other shoe completed its descent, smashing Betty's heart in the process.

She slowly walked backward until the backs of her legs hit the bed and she sat down, staring at the picture. She was speechless. Of course, there was a catch. It was like the universe hated her. First Chuck cheated on her. Then as soon as she starts to even think about moving on, as soon as she even finds someone she somewhat has a bond with, he's not even single and just used her to cheat with.  
  
A small part of her wanted to believe this was just some big misunderstanding. That he was really single and whoever this Toni person was just didn't have a chance to move out yet. But then that voice that sounded suspiciously like her mother chimed in again, asking if she could really be that naive.  
  
"Hey, I made some coffee, I hope you're okay with it being strong, I drink it so often I've developed a tolerance and need it to be strong enough to take down a..." Jughead came in carrying two mugs but promptly stopped talking when he saw Betty staring at the photo.

“So where’s Toni?” Betty asked simply.

“San Francisco.” At least he didn’t try to evade the question. She gave him partial credit for that.

“Are you still with her?”

Jughead sighed, shaking his head. "It's... complicated."

"No, it's not." Betty shot up, leaving the photo on the bed and shaking her head disbelievingly "You just answered it."

He put the mugs on the desk and sat on the bed. "Betty, I can explain that."  
  
Betty started pulling up her jeans as quickly as she could. Every second she had to spend in that apartment was just a reminder that she was now the one thing that she never wanted to be - the other woman.

“When does she get back?” Betty inquired.

“Her flight was today but it got canceled.” He wasn’t even looking her directly in the eyes anymore.

“Yeah, I heard there was a huge snowstorm,” Betty commented snidely as she grabbed the rest of her clothes to take to the living room area. “You know I always wondered what it would be like to be the other woman.  It doesn’t feel good. Better, undeniably, but not good by any means.”

Betty turned on her heel and walked towards the windows at the other side of the apartment. The snow, thankfully, had stopped falling, so at least she would be able to leave. She turned on the TV to see the status of the trains and started pulling on the rest of her clothes.

The news had just gotten to the Transit Update when Jughead walked over with a note.

“Can I just show you this one thing?” he asked.

“Leave me alone,” Betty sighed as she tried to focus on the television. The subways were running with residual delays from being shut down due to the storm, but at least all the lines were back up and running. Good, she wouldn’t have to deal with Uber’s surge pricing - not that she wouldn’t have happily paid that at the moment.

“Betty…” He sounded so sad. Broken almost.

“Look, I’m not mad. I mean I can’t be. When we first met all I asked for was meaningless sex, which you delivered.”  Betty took her back-up hair elastic out of the pocket of her jeans and pulled her hair back in a ponytail before she continued. “I never asked if you were single so you didn’t even lie to me. This is my fault, really.”

Jughead sat down on the couch next to her and held the neatly folded paper in front of her again. “Just read this, please," he pleaded.  
  
“Fine.” Betty grabbed the note from him and skimmed it over. It was a note from Toni telling him about how he was great and they had fun but she didn't see a future with them, so she really thought it was best for them to part ways.  
  
"I don't understand, if she gave you that note, why is it still 'complicated'?" Betty asked, putting air quotes around the word complicated. “Why are you still living together?”

"Because she didn't give me the note yet," Jughead explained as he took the note back. "I found the note when she asked me to find her wallet. The next day she went on tour for three weeks."

"Tour?" Betty asked.  
  
"She's a DJ," Jughead answered.  
  
"Of course she has a really cool job," Betty scoffed. "But okay if you knew about the note why didn't you say anything to her? Or wait for her to get back before doing something like this?!"  
  
"When I found it, I was in shock. I didn’t know what to do, or how to react. So I panicked and hid the note in my wallet then gave her back hers at lunch. I spent the last three weeks angry, trying to think of what to do and then I found your profile and I just..." Jughead tried to explain, sighing before adding, “I did something incredibly stupid. And I hurt you and I’m sorry.”

“Excuse me,” Betty got up and went to his bathroom. The tears she had been holding back the entire time broke through, spilling out in waves, but she refused to let him see her in this state. She didn’t want him to know she was crying because of something he did, that he could have any effect on her whatsoever. She couldn’t even look at herself in the mirror.

She could have been in that bathroom five minutes or fifteen minutes, she honestly didn’t know. All Betty could focus on was getting the quiet sobbing under control and trying to not clench her fists to the point of completely reopening her scars. A trickle of blood running from her left hand let her know she failed.

“Shit,” she muttered quietly as she opened the faucet to wash away the blood.

Jughead was still on the same spot on the couch when Betty left the bathroom to grab her coat.  

As she pulled on the remainder of her garments and started walking towards the door, Jughead ran in front of her and stopped her, a pleading expression on his face.  
  
"Betty, please, don't go," he begged "Until this weekend I didn’t even know you and having met you I can’t see myself with Toni anymore. Please, I really like you."

"And after all this why would you think I still liked you?" She asked coldly.  
  
"Betty..."  
  
"No," she cut him off "I was fine before I met you, and I'll be fine long after I forget about you."  
  
"Betty you can't tell me you'll just forget about all of this!" He cried out.  
  
"You’re just a funny guy who works in construction. I think you severely overestimate your ability to break hearts, Forsythe." She said before she pushed past him and stormed out of the apartment.

The staircase was dark despite it only being the early afternoon and Betty was worried that the door would still be blocked by snow. It took a good push but she was able to get it open far enough to squeeze out of the building. She had to walk slowly to the train, taking deliberate steps to make sure she wouldn't slip and fall on the icy ground. The train, fortunately, was empty, and the ride was long enough that she was able to think about everything that happened over the last weekend.  
  
It was like a cruel joke. He seemed so great. So thoughtful. So understanding when she told him about her past. But then, of course, he turned out to be like the rest. And why should it go any other way? This was Betty Cooper, perpetually unlucky in love. She should just call it a day and give up now at the ripe old age of twenty-two.

Then she looked up and saw an advertisement on the subway - some community college ad about finding one's path in life - and thought again about how far she strayed off of hers. This wasn't where she saw herself going two years ago. Unemployed, taking a train home alone after a disastrous, turned wonderful, turned heartbreaking one night stand. Or was it two night stand now that she stayed over multiple nights? She was better than this. She could do better than this. She could be better than this. But first she needed to sleep for like... a week.

* * *

By the time Betty got home it was six PM. Veronica and Archie were holed up on the couch, covered in what looked like her duvet. Great, as if this weekend couldn't get any worse. Betty pulled the duvet off the pair, too exhausted to even reprimand them or order them to wash it for her. She took the duvet to her room, dumping it back on her bed.  
  
"Hey, how was the weekend, Bee? I see you survived." Veronica commented, following Betty into the room.  
  
Betty turned around to face Veronica, flopping down gracelessly to sit on the bed. "It's a long story, Vee, I really don't want to talk about it right now. Please tell me you and Archie didn't use up all the hot water, I could really use a shower right now."  
  
"No, it's all yours, do you want to get some dinner after?" Veronica offered. "I could kick Archiekins out, we could order some Chinese, have a total girls night in."

Betty considered her offer, a girls night in sounded really great at the moment. "Sounds good, Vee. Are you sure Archie will understand?"

"Of course he will!" Veronica insisted. "Now go get in the shower, I'll order our usual and by the time you get out everything will be ready."  
  
"Thanks, Vee!" Betty hugged her friend, grabbed her bathrobe from the door and made her way over to the shower. She said a brief hello to Archie who had thankfully gotten dressed by then, but didn't have much other interaction with the redhead.  
  
The hot shower did wonders for Betty's frayed nerves. By the time she got out of the shower she was feeling less exhausted physically, but not mentally. Her sore muscles thanked her, but it didn't take away the pain in her chest, the one she grew to identify as heartbreak. She hoped maybe talking it over with Veronica would help.  
  
As she passed the living room on her way to her bedroom she saw Veronica in her dark purple silk pajamas, setting up the coffee table with their usual order from their local Chinese takeout place, as promised.

"I'll be out in just a minute, Vee," Betty assured, going back into her room to change into her own baby blue pajamas.  
  
By the time Betty was ready, Veronica was sitting on the couch, halfway through an egg roll.

They each filled a plate of food before Veronica turned to Betty, a curious expression in her eyes. "So, spill, I want to hear everything about the weekend, spare no details!"

"My weekend was, to sum it up in one word, complicated. I went on the dating site like you suggested. But the first few guys I found were all creepy. Then this one guy finally had a decent response so I sucked it up and went over to his house. But the sex was... not very good. And then the next morning we had a huge argument, it was awful." Betty chuckled.

"Well no wonder you wanted me to get you out of there," Veronica laughed with Betty.

"But then when he saw that I couldn't get out he didn't even wait for me to ask if I could stay, he just offered to let me stay until the snow cleared. It was very sweet of him. He made me oatmeal with a jelly smiley face, then we got high and made a blanket fort," Betty continued, leaving out the little detail of how she clogged his toilet and broke his neighbor's window. Veronica didn't need to know _everything_. "Then he came up with the idea of telling each other what we did wrong in bed."  
  
Veronica blanched at hearing this, eyes wide. "Did you actually agree to this?"  
  
"I did," Betty nodded "And it turned out to be a great idea because when we had sex the second time, it was infinitely better."  
  
Veronica put her plate down on the coffee table, unable to process what she was hearing. "Wow, whose idea was it to go for round two?"

"Mine, if you can believe it," Betty smiled. "But it was totally a science thing. I figured our next partner wouldn't be able to adequately gauge how far we came if they didn't have anything to compare it to."  
  
"Elizabeth Mildred Cooper, I have never been prouder of you than I am this very second." Veronica put her hand on her chest.

"Not my middle name," Betty noted. "And the story doesn't have a completely happy ending."  
  
"It should be and why not? Does he snore?" Veronica inquired.  
  
"The next morning was great, we cuddled, he made me noodles, I told him about Chuck and..." Betty lifted her palms "His response was to kiss my hands and tell me Chuck was an idiot to let me go, he had total heart eyes."  
  
"Failing to see the unhappy ending here."  
  
"He has a girlfriend, Veronica," Betty blurted out. "He has a girlfriend that he lives with, named Toni, who is a DJ on tour.”  
  
“Oh Betty,” Veronica rubbed Betty’s arm. “I’m so sorry.”

"It's okay," Betty shook her head. "It's not in the cards for me to be happy."  
  
"Elizabeth Cooper, I never want to hear you say that again, you are a smart, capable, independent woman. If this miscreant couldn't be bothered to find you when he was single, that shouldn't be a mark against you." Veronica lectured.  
  
"Thanks, Veronica, where would I be without you?" Betty smiled.  
  
Betty had a hard time falling asleep that night, despite being tired from the day's journey. Her bed felt too big, too empty, too much for just one person. She tossed and turned for what seemed like half the night before finally drifting off. When she did finally fall asleep, she dreamt of Jughead Jones and his stupid beanie.

The next day she logged on to the dating website to see she had twenty new messages from Jughead. All with similar subject lines - apologizing, asking for another chance, acknowledging he made a mistake, even giving his number. Without clicking on a single message, Betty moved her cursor over to the “delete my account” option. She hovered over it for a second, hesitating, before taking a deep breath and pushing the button.

* * *

A few days later, as Betty was working on her resume, for real this time, Veronica came home from work with Archie not too far behind.  
  
"Betty," Veronica said as she sat next to Betty on the couch, Archie not far behind her. "We need to talk."  
  
"Okay..." Betty hesitantly closed her computer and put it down on the coffee table in front of her. "What's up guys?"  
  
"Well, you know this past weekend, when you weren't here?" Archie asked nervously. "We had the apartment to ourselves and we sort of started to wonder what that could be like if it was like more often."  
  
"What Archie is trying to say is that we were wondering if you would be okay moving out so that Archie could move in? Maybe when we renew the lease in January." Veronica asked nervously. "I mean I know it's sort of last minute and it would be putting you out it's just that..."  
  
Veronica flashed her hand which now had a sparkling engagement ring on it.  
  
Betty's eyes went wide at the size of the ring on Veronica's hand.

"Archie popped the question last night at dinner, it was our three year anniversary," Veronica explained. "You've just been seeming better these last few days and I would totally be willing to pay the first few months rent at your new place until you get a new job and..."  
  
"Guys, say no more," Betty cut her off. "I completely agree with you. I've been in a funk and while I'm really thankful that you've let me stay in your extra room, it has been too long and I really should try to find a new place."  
  
"Thank you, Betty," Archie said, relieved.  
  
"Thank you!" Veronica hugged her friend. "Wait, this means that this is going to be our last New Year's Eve as roommates."

"I guess so," Betty shrugged.  
  
"Well then we have to throw a party to end all parties!" Veronica declared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there you have it... as I was typing the story I refered to the second half of this chapter as "angst city". Apologies to those who are morally offended by what Jughead did or think it was completely out of character for him to do so. Those who saw the movie knew it was coming but I didn't want to put it in the tags because of spoilers. One more chapter, hopefully you guys will keep reading and like the ending I have in store!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we are, the last chapter! As I was getting ready to post this update I saw the story got to 100 kudos which is just mindblowing to me and I really could not be more thankful to everyone who chose to read, comment, leave kudos, and bookmark. You guys make me want to keep writing. Thank you. 
> 
> As always, a huge shout out and thank you to my beta readers, [paalme](http://archiveofourown.org/users/paalme/profile), taidine, and KD! You kept me going when I got frustrated and was ready to quit. This story would not be half as good without your infinite patience and guidance. You truly are the best beta readers a girl could ask for! ❤

**New Year's Eve  
**  
When Veronica said she was going to throw the party to end all parties she was not kidding. She must have invited everyone she knew to their apartment. There were people Betty hadn't seen in years and even more people she’d never met in her life.  
  
Veronica declared that her parting gift to Betty, who would be moving out of the apartment in two weeks, was to find her a worthy man on New Year's Eve and get her a fairy tale kiss at midnight. And maybe more, wink wink. She got Betty a low-cut pink gold dress which shimmered and made her feel like a princess. Betty wore her hair down, letting it fall over her shoulders in soft waves. Veronica also got professional makeup artists to come in and get them ready for the party. It was wonderful, which is why Betty resented that all the efforts were wasted on the guy she was currently stuck with.

Dilton was quite possibly the most boring person on the face of the planet. And that was saying a lot. Betty had a high tolerance for boring but even she could not manage to keep an interested look on her face as he droned on about... whatever he was talking about.

"And then the knight of the high court killed the king because he was threatening to kill all of his subjects, which was so controversial at the time and there were so many papers written on that one narrative choice. Okay, you caught me, I wrote one of them..." Dilton droned on.  
  
Betty, trying to get some sort of mental stimulation before she passed out with her eyes open, looked over at the television. Stew Storms was doing the New Year's coverage for News 12 and was still as inappropriately enthusiastic as ever. She chuckled as she thought back to all the times she and Jughead watched him, thinking briefly of Jughead before remembering that he had a girlfriend and was probably spending the holiday with her. Probably laughing at Betty and how naive she was.

"Umm excuse me, are you even paying attention to me?!" Dilton's question got Betty to focus back on the present.

"Yes, yes, I'm completely focused on you," Betty lied.  
  
"You know, for someone so pretty, you're very rude," Dilton huffed.  
  
"It's just that you're so... smart, I just feel intimidated," Betty said in an attempt to deflect and find an out.

“Oh, there’s no need to feel intimidated,” Dilton insisted, ego thoroughly massaged.

"Yeah, but it's too late, I just can't even be around you, gotta go," Without even waiting for an answer Betty ran over to the empty spot on the couch, sighing as she sat down.  
  
"Hey, are you Betty?" A random guy asked as he sat down next to her.

"Who's asking?" She questioned with more than a hint of exasperation in her voice. After that encounter with Dilton, she needed at least a five-minute cooling off period before she could even pretend to be charming again.

"I'm Reggie, Archie's friend. I think we were supposed to meet a few days ago?" He explained. Betty looked over at him. Screw cooling off periods. This was the universe righting itself and she was not about to screw up her chances of making things right for once.

"Right, hi!" She smiled, turning on her charming persona again. "I was supposed to sleep with you!"  
  
"Umm what?" He furrowed his brows.  
  
"Nothing. So, are you enjoying the party?" She asked  
  
"Yeah, Ronnie knows how to throw a shindig." Fortunately what Veronica said about him not being the brightest bulb seemed to prove right. "What do you do, Betty?"

"Sort of in between jobs right now, how about you?" Betty ran her hand over Reggie's arm.  
  
"I'm an investment banker," Reggie explained. He started explaining his job but Betty felt her attention slipping and being on her third drink of the night did not help. Despite her best intentions, she kept thinking about Jughead. What he was doing. If he still thought of her. She hated him for breaking her heart the way he did. Most of all she hated herself for wanting to just forgive him and be with him.

What did that say about her? She was cheated on! If she started dating someone who cheated on his girlfriend, and with her no less, did that make her a bad person? Or did it just make her a person who wanted to be with someone who finally seemed to understand her? She didn't know, but after the way things ended with Jughead she was sure she would never be seeing him again and she was pretty sure that was for the best.  
  
Reggie was still droning on about investment banking when one of the partygoers called Betty over, telling her that there was someone at the door with an urgent message for her.  
  
"If it's about the noise, all complaints go to Veronica or Archie," she insisted "I'm not on the lease anymore and as such I will not be fielding any party related issues."  
  
"No, this guy seems pretty adamant about talking to you," the partygoer said.  
  
Before she could even ask what was going on, a very familiar face popped in.  
  
"Betty, please, just give me five minutes," Jughead pleaded.  
  
"Jughead?!" Betty asked, eyes wide. "What are you doing here?!"  
  
"Please, Betty, just five minutes and then if you never want to talk to me ever again, I'll completely understand." Jughead threaded his hands together.

It was like she was thinking about him and he materialized. Part of Betty wanted to tell him off, to just tell him to go to hell and never come back. But another part felt guilty and acquiesced.

"Fine, let's just go in the hallway," she agreed, walking out with him in the hallway where it was quieter, but leaving the door to the apartment open.

"You have exactly five minutes," Betty warned him, looking down at her watch to take note of what time it was.  
  
"Okay so first off I once again want to apologize for what happened, I should have told you about Toni much earlier," Jughead admitted. "To be completely honest, things between Toni and I hadn't been working for a long time. I don't exactly know when we started growing apart, but at some point we did and clearly, since she wrote the note, she was feeling the same way.”

“I don't even know why I made the dating profile, I think because I was feeling rejected by Toni I wanted to find someone who didn't make me feel like such an unwanted loser, even if it was just for one night, maybe with the added benefit of giving me something to throw in Toni's face when she finally decided to pull the trigger and give me the note. But what I can say is that never in a million years did I ever expect to meet someone like you."

A lock of hair fell out of his hat into his face and he pushed it aside, taking a deep breath before he continued. "So while yes, I should have mentioned that I still technically had a girlfriend, there were times when we were together that I completely forgot other people existed. I just wanted to keep being with you, talking to you, learning more about you."

"Are you and Toni completely broken up? Officially and in a way she knows about?" Betty asked pointedly.  
  
"Yes," Jughead insisted. "She came back, we spoke about it. She moved out of the apartment a few days ago. I know it probably doesn't make what I did any better but while she was on tour, Toni realized she was in love with her manager, Cheryl, so she had planned to break up with me, anyway."  
  
"I know I'm grumpy, miserable, sarcastic, and an all around unpleasant person. I know I messed up. If you said that you never wanted to see me again in your life, I would totally understand," Jughead confessed. "But the two nights I spent with you were easily the best in my entire life and at the same time, they were nowhere near enough. So please, if you could find it in that amazing heart of yours, would you please just give us a shot to see where this could go? Maybe we last a week and never want to see each other again, but maybe we go the distance and this is just a funny story we look back on. Whichever it is, I really want to find out, but only if you agree. And I think my five minutes are up."  
  
Betty stayed rooted in place, unsure of what to do. On the one hand, he cheated on his girlfriend, with her. What's to say he wouldn't do the same to her? On the other hand, he really seemed repentant and she couldn't deny that even before he came over to beg for her forgiveness, especially with that compelling case, she was considering giving it to him.  
  
She also couldn't deny that she never met anyone else with whom she bonded as strongly as she had with Jughead.

From inside the apartment, she heard the partygoers start counting down the last few seconds to the new year.  
  
_Ten_  
  
Did she want this?  
_  
Nine_  
  
Could she do this?  
_  
Eight_  
  
What would people think of her?  
_  
Seven_  
  
What would her mother say? What would Veronica say?  
_  
Six_  
  
Did she really care what other people would say?  
_  
Five_  
  
This could be a real shot at happiness.  
_  
Four_  
  
This could be what she was waiting for.  
_  
Three_  
  
Jughead was looking at her with the most sincere look on his face.  
_  
Two_  
  
She knew what she had to do.  
  
_One_  
  
Before she could change her mind, Betty reached forward and kissed Jughead. Although momentarily caught off guard, he quickly caught up, carding his hand through her hair as he kissed her back. Damn, she didn't even realize how much she missed kissing him.

"So I take it that's a yes?" Jughead asked with a goofy grin as the pair broke apart.  
  
Betty playfully slapped his chest before she kissed him again. "It's a yes, but you're on probation. I'm still angry at you for breaking my heart."  
  
Jughead's expression sobered. He nodded. "That's completely fair. And I meant what I said, I am willing to do whatever to get on your good side."  
  
"You can start by meeting my friends," Betty said as she led Jughead to the party. "Veronica and Archie are inside."

* * *

**New Year’s Day**

Betty woke up on New Year's Day in a much better mood than she did the previous year. Last year she was in a funk, still depressed and moping over a failed engagement. This year, she felt like things were looking up for a change.

The sun was bright in her room, the birds were chirping, she even considered going out for a run.

"Stop moving," Jughead grumbled from beside her. "I thought we talked about this whole moving around in the morning business."

"I don't know, I was thinking about going for a run. Want to join me?" Betty asked cheerfully. "You did say you would do whatever to get on my good side."

Jughead opened his eyes to stare at Betty. "I'm starting to think this whole relationship thing is a mistake. Clearly we're polar opposites."

However harsh his words were, they were betrayed by him smiling and pulling Betty in for a closer cuddle.

"You're right, this is much better," Betty said into his shoulder.

"I knew you would come around to my logic," Jughead mumbled before falling asleep.

Betty did mean it. This was better. But not just staying in bed. Being with Jughead was better.

Betty kissed his shoulder before settling in his arms and falling back to sleep. The year might be new and full of promise, but those promises could wait a few more hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all folks... for part one! Some of you may have noticed that this work is part of a series now. That's because from the start I always intended for this story to be not just multi-chapter, but multi-story. Stay tuned for part 2 which will be from Jughead's POV! 
> 
> Happy New Year everyone!

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment or kudos if you liked it. My goal is to post one chapter a day until they're all up. Rating might change. You can find me on tumblr at http://edenofalltrades.tumblr.com/.


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